Lawrence Lockman
Now that the communist porta-potty pervert Graham Platner has had his fifteen minutes of fame, what’s next in the run-up to the midterm elections in Maine?
I’ll get to that in a minute.
First, I want to focus on the latest culture-war clash between deranged transgender supremacists and reality-based Mainers in the battle to keep penises out of the girls’ restrooms and locker rooms in Maine’s K-12 government-run indoctrination camps.
As you may have heard, a proposed citizen initiative to ban men and boys from girls’ sports and private spaces was derailed by a unanimous Maine Supreme Court last week.
Advocates for the ballot initiative spent nearly a million dollars in the past year to hire petition circulators, including more than 100 “professional” circulators from out of state.
Pardon me, but does that sound like a Maine-based grassroots campaign to you?
The decision to hire so many mercenaries came back to bite the campaign in its backside. Thousands of signatures submitted by the out-of-staters were invalidated because the gatherers failed to follow the rules, particularly the requirement that all signatures be witnessed by the person circulating the petition.
But even if the petition circulators had played by the rules and succeeded in getting the measure on the ballot, the sponsors don’t seem to understand what we’re up against. To put it bluntly, the referendum process in Maine is not friendly to conservative causes. You might say it’s rigged.
So, answer me this:
If you have the ability to raise multiple millions of dollars for a one-issue referendum campaign, why not invest that money instead in targeting the ten most vulnerable incumbent Democrats in the Maine House and the three most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate? Flip those seats, and re-take the Blaine House if you want to keep male genitalia out of girls’ sports, locker rooms, and restrooms.
When they’re finished mopping up that mess, conservative legislators in the majority could enact school choice legislation, root out Somali welfare fraud, outlaw sanctuary policies, reduce the state income tax, and terminate state-funded freebies for foreigners, such as free rent in brand-new luxury apartments. Conservative legislators would also have the votes to appoint the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.
When will we conservatives ever learn that there are no shortcuts to victory in the culture wars that rage around us?
In a deep blue state like Maine, where the 288,610 registered Republicans make up just 30% of the electorate, there is no substitute for the grunt work of grassroots organizing at the local level for the long haul.
Think about it. When barely 60% of registered Republicans show up for midterm elections, why would conservative mega-donors want a statewide vote to decide any policy issue? I’m all ears, help me out.
Last November, a conservative-backed citizens’ initiative to require voter ID was crushed at the polls by a mind-boggling 2-to-1 margin. But that lopsided loss didn’t deter sponsors of the No Boys in Girls’ Sports campaign from launching their doomed ballot initiative in the wake of that defeat.
None of this came as a surprise to me. In fact, my opinion column in the Maine Wire last November has aged well: Ballot Box Boomerang: Will Maine Republicans Overcome Their Addiction to Legislating by Referendum? – The Maine Wire
So that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
With regard to the Nipple Nazi’s rise and fall in the Democrat primary, I would like to see more Republican legislators using social media to heap shame and ridicule on the legions of brain-dead Democrat legislators who endorsed predator Platner.
There’s no time like the present to go on offense, my friends. Fight fire with fire for a change. What do you have to lose?
Also, be sure to remind voters that the Dems are going to scrap Ranked Choice Voting in their upcoming special convention to replace P-Hustle on the November ballot. Nor will Independent (unenrolled) voters be allowed to serve as convention delegates or cast ballots.
Given that RCV and open primaries are the law of the land in Maine, how’s that for shameless hypocrisy? Make the Dems own it.
My favorite candidates are Shenna Bellows, a truly loathsome Bolshevik tyrant who serves as Secretary of State, and Troy Jackson, former state Senate president and functionally illiterate union goon who has a hard time constructing a coherent sentence. Either one of these clowns would provide much-needed comic relief as the days grow colder heading into November.
Just remember: friends don’t let friends vote Democrat!
Lawrence Lockman (R-Bradley) served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, from 2012 to 2020. He is Co-founder & President of Maine First Project, a 501(c)(4) non-profit.
He may be reached at [email protected] or (207) 460-6518.
